Joe Biden comments on LGBT discrimination raise eyebrows

Biden didn’t mention the executive order and called on Congress to pass ENDA. | Getty

A non-discrimination executive order would fulfill the promise in your State of the Union address to make this a ‘year of action,’” last week’s letter to Obama stated.

ENDA, though, only made it into a footnote of one of the factsheets the White House put out for the speech, with no mention then or since of a parallel executive order. The White House has not elaborated on its thinking since then and declined comment on Biden’s speech, referring instead to press secretary Jay Carney’s comments on the topic last week.

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“There is no question I think in anyone’s mind that the passage of legislation in the form of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act would provide those protections broadly in a way that an E.O. would not,” Carney said, in comments that echoed the language he used in December to push back on progressives calling for the government contractors minimum wage executive order.

Valerie Jarrett, the administration point person on the executive order, has kept saying the same thing since she told advocates at a White House meeting two years ago that the time wasn’t right. That was before Obama got re-elected. In the year and a half since, she and domestic policy adviser Cecilia Muñoz haven’t returned with better news.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, are urging the White House not to delay.

“I certainly agree that ultimately we need to have a law passed, but I’m clear that in the interim, I’d like to see those protections extended to more and more Americans,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), an ENDA sponsor and one of the letter’s signers.

“The protections are real and meaningful,” Baldwin added. “I think a lot of people don’t recognize that people can and do still get fired on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

“We have the president’s back,” said Polis. “Our country’s ready, and the order would be met with strong support in Congress.”

Winnie Stachelberg, a vice president at the Center for American Progress who’s also been involved in discussions with the White House about the executive order, cautioned against too much of a comparison between the ENDA and minimum wage situations.

Corporations have expressed significant concerns about being subject to an executive order that wasn’t as comprehensive as legislation would be. Also on people’s minds: the Hobby Lobby case argued at the Supreme Court Tuesday, which could produce a ruling that allowing businesses to exempt themselves from government mandates on the basis of belief—which could then potentially be extend into rejecting LGBT protections.

“There are parallels from an advocacy perspective,” Stachelberg said. “But there are so many more considerations that the administration needs to take into account when making these decisions.”